In the sixth part of this in-depth interview, Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, spoke about the 46th anniversary of the PKK as well as the way the organization will enter the new year of struggle.

The first part of the interview can be read here, the second part here, the third part here, the fourth part here, and the fifth here.

War is also a reality of the struggle for freedom. What can you tell us about the latest developments in this direction?

Regarding the war, the HPG and YJA Star commands and our central headquarters make the necessary statements and publish balance sheets at the end of each month. Every day there are actions in West Zap and Metina. There are actions from Haftanin to Xakurke. The Medya Defense Areas are heroically resisting the invasion attack launched on July 3 with the support of the Iraqi administration. We can state that the invasion attack has failed.

They said that they would set an end to the guerrilla until summer, then they said fall, and now it is the end of November. They said that there would be some good news that they would announce, but every promise of them ran empty. Their General Chief of Staff was going to make a statement or the Minister of Defense was going to explain how they were successful in Zap, but there was nothing to announce. On August 15, they had a meeting with Iraq. Maybe there will be a statement on November 27th as well. They shall explain; the public is waiting for an explanation from them. They said they would close the lock. Have they closed it? Haven’t they locked themselves? Aren’t they stuck in a quagmire? It is very strange. And it is as if they have made everyone believe it. They are propagandizing in the Middle East and all over the world. They make so much propaganda that they are beginning to believe it themselves. They are surprised every time they hear that the guerrillas have carried out another action in the Zap and that soldiers have been shot again. They deceived many circles with lies about how they destroyed the PKK. By saying that, they gained power and support from everyone. But the reality is not like that; those who know this will stop supporting them. They will be ridiculed. They always postpone “the end of the PKK.” It goes on and on like this. The reality is that the war continues. The war is also going on in northern Kurdistan. Our central headquarters command stated in its statements that now the focus lies more on northern Kurdistan again. There will be new developments in this regard in the coming period. The war continues in the cities as well. Actions are taking place every day. There are military operations taking place. We see that the war is gradually spreading from the Medya Defense Areas and northern Kurdistan to the cities. But of course the war in the Medya Defense Areas is important. The KDP gave all kinds of support. Most recently, Iraq gave support. These planned attacks, occupation attacks, are in their 10th year. 10 years ago, in October 2014, they had planned and decided on the basis of the so-called ‘collapse action plan’. 10 years have passed, and they have not been able to achieve even the narrowest of their goals.

They face a difficult situation. They mobilized all their means to succeed. They stopped all of Turkey’s finances, all of Turkey’s economy, everything, and spent everything on this. Now everything is collapsed. If they had gotten results here, maybe they would have predicted them. They didn’t get results here either. Therefore, their failure in the war brings their collapse as a system, as a fascist government, as a colonialist, genocidal mentality, and politics. Therefore, they are really experiencing a collapse and a deadlock against the guerrilla. It is a complete bog down. The effects of this will be seen more in the coming period.

What will develop will have a serious impact on the fascist AKP and MHP regimes. In the beginning, the guerrilla struggled to develop tactics; there was inexperience; they had difficulties with changes, but now they have accumulated a great deal of experience in tunnel and mobile team warfare. Now they are in a position to understand the attacks coming at them, they are developing protection measures against them, and they are carrying out offensive actions themselves and are constantly striking. This will be the case for a long time to come. The guerrilla’s striking power is known. Rêber Apo said, “There is no action that a guerrilla unit, no matter how small, that has educated and strengthened itself cannot carry out successfully, no enemy that it cannot defeat.” This was seen latest in the action and attitude of comrades Asya and Rojger. The action targeting the TAI showed the striking power of the guerrilla. It showed everyone that there is no enemy target that it cannot hit, that it cannot enter, that it cannot strike. This shows the peak the guerrilla has reached in its struggles. On this basis, I once again salute the guerrilla fighting heroically all over Kurdistan, especially in Zap and Metina, congratulate their successes, and commemorate its heroic martyrs with respect, love, and gratitude. I wish them all great success in the coming winter.

The attacks on the political and social level, especially in northern Kurdistan, have recently increased in intensity and the state has once again appointed trustees for several municipalities. What can you say about this? What is your message to people?

Democratic political circles are evaluating the situation, putting forward their positions, making decisions, planning, and developing a struggle. Our patriotic people, particularly the women and the youth, are participating in every field, and a great resistance is being shown. In Merdin (tr. Mardin), Xelfeti (tr. Halfeti), Elih (tr. Batman), and Shevshek (tr. Esenyurt), the Kurdish people show great resistance against the attack in the form of appointing trustees. Now the people of Dersim (tr. Tunceli) are standing up. Dersim does not kneel; Seyit Riza did not kneel. The people of Dersim do not bow their heads; they resist. The Kurdish people resist; Kurdistan resists against these attacks. Of course they will resist; there is no other way.

The situation shows how fake the discussions about the current process are. It is simply unbelievable how mendacious they are. There is hardly anything comparable in the world. It is also unbelievable that there are still people who listen to them after all the massacres and all the invasion attacks, after all the ways they have been abused and exploited. The democratic political arena should also make good use of the current situation. It would not be good to lose what was gained by not taking a stand against such approaches in time. One must be able to protect and defend what one has gained. This aspect is important.

The people’s municipalities and the people’s service centers should be in the hands of the people. The state should not interfere. It is necessary to address why the state tries to intervene here. That’s where the problem lies. A municipality won with 65 percent of the vote, and they won’t let them organize it themselves. Fascist laws made it like this. The centralist state, the state that leaves nothing to the community, does this. Democratic society must reject this. It must fight against this. It must develop its own alternative. It must create a democratic people’s administration, a local administration. Not everything can be done with money. They can collect aid among themselves; they can organize themselves as a municipality. They can do their own work. It is necessary to frustrate this usurpation called trusteeship through various methods. It seems to me that this is actually due to not being able to overcome statism, not being able to organize and develop democratic governance and democratic alternatives sufficiently. These should be emphasized more.

I mean what shall I say in this regard? We are a force of struggle. We say resistance. “Resistance is life!” is the saying comrade Mazlum Dogan has coined. Resistance leads to victory, surrender leads to betrayal. Resistance, more resistance, and more resistance; there is no other way but this. There is no other way, no other method but to grow and develop resistance against fascist aggression and usurpation. We need to organize more, fight more, and resist more.

Now, for the third time, a trustee is being appointed in Merdin. There are elections every five years. That’s fifteen years. For fifteen years the people show their will, and for fifteen years the state goes against it and appoints whoever suits it better instead. So what is the point of that election? Was there any meaning to elections in Turkey then? Are they democratic elections? It is obvious that the election is a game. The people should no longer take this into consideration, and neither should anyone else; we can’t. We were actually doing a test run. Now no one in Turkey will have any credibility anymore, neither in municipal elections nor in other elections. Because the will of the people is not validated. The will that rules it, the will of the fascist chief, the will of the palace coups as it wishes. It changes it whenever it wants. It happens through war, through struggle, through resistance. So what are the people of Kurdistan, the Kurdish people, the youth, and young women going to say? They work so hard, hold elections, win them, and then the state comes and takes it away from them. So, what should they do? They must break the hands that reach out to them. That means war; it means self-defense. The people have to organize their own self-defense. Right now they try to take the will of the people by force of arms, by force of police; they cannot take a step if there is a revolutionary force against them that will counterbalance that force.

The Kurds are not without an alternative. There is the PKK. We call on young people and young women to join the PKK, join PAJK, join the guerrilla, and concentrate on self-defense organization. Fascism, colonialism, and genocide cannot be overthrown by elections. If you don’t fight in the language they understand, you can’t push them back. What is the struggle in the language they understand? Guerrilla struggle. This can be in the city, in the mountains, everywhere. It can be developed everywhere.

We didn’t want it to be like this, but the other side does. As I said, Kurds work with alternatives; the PKK works with alternatives. Therefore, if they say it cannot be done through elections, we will respond with war, struggle, and resistance. We will respond with serhildan. We will develop people’s war, self-defense war, and people’s serhildans. If they use force, we will know how to impose revolutionary force against their fascist force. Kurds have this courage, this consciousness. The PKK is the name of this consciousness, the name of this organization, the name of this action. The PKK expresses this will in Kurdistan. It is the will and self-defense of the Kurdish people in spirit, emotion, thought, consciousness, and action. The PKK will become stronger. The PKK struggle will develop more.

To prevent this, they are developing all kinds of special war attacks. There are gangs everywhere. They are trying to develop all kinds of corruption to prevent the youth, young women, from participating in the freedom struggle in the guerrilla. Drugs, prostitution, theft, gangsterism – they develop everything. We need to take to the mountains more against them. They need to be held to account. The special war cannot be prevented by just discussing it. It needs to be discussed, and awareness must be raised, but essentially, it is necessary to organize and take action against it. When there is no revolutionary organizational action against them, they appear to be strong. As soon as they are confronted, as soon as they are held to account, they cower in their places. There is a great new future for the Kurdish youth. There is a free life, a new life. This is the consciousness of this youth. It has been fighting for almost fifty years, waging a struggle for freedom under the leadership of Rêber Apo.

The developments show the necessity to correctly, seriously and disciplined approach the struggle. The struggle will continue in all respects. Fascist mentality, system, colonialist, genocidal power – what else can be expected from AKP and MHP? Of course they will attack, but we will develop a resistance and struggle that will destroy those attacks with much greater strength on every front, everywhere. The trend is in favor of the development of the revolutionary struggle, the struggle for freedom, the struggle for democracy. Fascism is shrinking, being squeezed, being forced. It is in a deadlock, it is experiencing insolvency. If we organize ourselves more and mobilize ourselves for more effective struggle, we will win. I invite everyone to such an attitude once again.

We would now like to take a look at the Third World War. Can you give us an outlook on this?

Since 1990, the Third World War has been developing and spreading through various stages. The whole world is involved in this. At this point, beyond its ideological and political dimension, the military dimension is also emerging, intensifying, and spreading. The danger is increasing in that dimension as well. Many people were looking at the election in the US. Trump became president with the propaganda that he would stop the ongoing wars. But just before he became president elect, there was a discussion of nuclear war over Ukraine. The US, Britain, now France, and many other powers are encouraging the Ukrainian government to use more weapons, to use new weapons. Most recently, France has taken steps in this regard. They even announced that they would send troops. It is an astonishing situation. One understands the efforts of the US, but why this effort of Europe, especially Germany and France? The US and the UK started this war. They pushed Europe and Russia back with this war situation. The US competence has improved. But is Europe so weak-willed? Is it so obedient to the US? Whereas in the past they used to say that NATO is brain dead, that it cannot protect Europe, that an European army is necessary, and that Europe must have a new defense system, now these things are happening as if they were never said, as if they were never recorded.

There is a possibility that Trump would gradually cool down the war in Ukraine. When he gets into office this is most likely to be the development. We thought that if the supranational monopoly capital wanted it that way, it would elect Trump president. Trump was indeed elected. But now, even before he takes office, the Biden administration is escalating the war in Ukraine. Maybe the last things are being played out. There will be a retreat, maybe. But it is a dangerous game. They are playing a dangerous game of nuclear weapons. The war may become more widespread and deepen in the Middle East. We don’t think Trump will follow a very different policy on this issue. After the attacks on Lebanon and the war with Hezbollah, Israel is gradually increasing its attacks on Syria. They may hit Iranian targets in Syria more. The issue of what the Syrian administration will be and how the Syrian system will be shaped may come to the fore more. This may be the more influential agenda of the coming days, weeks, and months. There is an open situation for this.

Iran seems to be making efforts to prevent this. Iran’s stance has always been to withdraw from the war. Despite these attacks, there does not seem to be a different attitude. But it is not clear how effective and preventive it will be. With the Israeli attacks, the US and NATO have gained military superiority in the Middle East. They will probably escalate them further. In other words, they will target Iran’s extraterritorial forces more. They are forcing Iran to compromise with its own hand. Or alternative democratization may develop.

The same is true for Turkey. Turkey panicked a bit when the first clashes happened. Israel’s attack on Hezbollah and the war in Lebanon provoked it first. Supposedly Israel and Iran would fight. Both of them would be dependent on Turkey in the Middle East, and Turkey would be an effective power outside the war, like a mediator. Turkey realized that the Israeli attacks were not like that, that they were aimed at striking a blow against the status quo. When they realized that the center of the war would gradually shift to Turkey and that the tail of the war would break in Cyprus, they panicked. Now they are probably making different, deep calculations. They are trying to distract with some debates and psychological warfare. Bahceli made an exit in this regard. We called on him to be serious, but he was not consistent. He could not show a political stance equal to his serious stance in his statements. We don’t know how the next process will be. But the outlook for Turkey is not good. As long as the AKP and MHP fascism continue its current rule, as long as this power in Turkey remains in this form, as long as the Kurdish-hostile, fascist, anti-democratic, dictatorial rule continues, Turkey will face great dangers. It will enter a catastrophe. So much so that a similar imposition will come to Turkey. Either it will completely surrender to the new Middle Eastern capitalist modernity that Israel wants to develop together with the Arabs, or if the democratic alternative does not develop, if Kurdish freedom and democratic Turkey do not develop, Turkey will disintegrate. There is no other way for Turkey within the system. Its options are either to disintegrate or to surrender to the Israeli order.

Apart from this, the only possible salvation for Turkey is democratization on the basis of Kurdish freedom. An alternative democratic Turkey must emerge, unite its strength and reach the power to protect itself from all these attacks. Especially those who love Turkey, intellectuals, politicians, democratic forces, true patriots of Turkey must see this situation. They must oppose AKP and MHP fascism on this basis. They must unite with Kurdish freedom on this basis. They should try to save Turkey from this disaster, knowing that this can only be realized on the basis of the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. Our efforts have always been on this basis, but not only with us, there must be a general rising up in Turkey to put an end to this trend. This is our expectation and effort. We hope we will see this soon.